Sep
7
Kitchen of House #1
September 7, 2007 |
More photos seem to have gone AWOL on me, as far as before, but here are a few before/after photos, focusing on the counter area of the kitchen, where the bulk of work went into:
Continuing the general theme of the rest of the house, I didn’t make any massive changes to the kitchen structurally, and basically worked with what was there. I wasn’t a big fan of the color of the countertop in place, but it was pretty new and in excellent shape, so I ultimately ditched any plans to replace it. The hardware on the cabinets was new and reasonably nice, so I simply re-painted the cabinets and left the hardware.As far as what I did do, here’s a quick list: installed tile backsplash and tile on one corner of the wall by the counter, re-painted the entire room, new vinyl flooring, replaced the old ceiling tiles, replaced the existing fluorescent light with a new light fixture, painted the cabinets, installed a new sink and faucet, replaced the grimy drip bowls in the stove.I wasn’t quite sure about the bright yellow color I picked at first for the top half of the walls, but it sort of grew on me, and I think it helps to brighten up (and open up) a galley style kitchen that only has one small window for natural light.
I don’t have a shot of the ceiling, but I ended up going with some 12×12 Armstrong ceiling tiles that have fancy patterns, sort of like a stamped tin ceiling look. It ended up taking me longer than I thought, as the tiles were fairly fragile and difficult to work with (they crumble and tear really easily), and I had to go back and caulk almost all of the seams. It looked good in the end, though, and saved me the hassle of hiring out the job if I’d had sheetrock put in, as you simply staple the tiles up, so while labor-intensive, the actual installation wasn’t that difficult. A bit pricy, as I ended up spending $250 on the tiles and materials, but not insanely so.
I was pretty happy with how the slate backsplash turned out, especially carrying it on down the corner wall there by the counter and pantry door. I’d originally planned to just do the backsplash area proper and paint that little piece of wall, but at my wife’s prompting I tiled the whole thing, and am glad I did, as it makes the backsplash pop a little more instead of just lurking back in the darkness beneath the cabinets.
Again, I’m a big fan of tile backsplashes, as they’re actually very easy to install (much easier than tiling floors or tub surrounds) and everyone thinks they look great. While the finished product looks as if it’d be very difficult to install, the reality is usually quite different, depending on the tile you use. The smaller pieces I use here come in 12×12 sheets, already spaced out due to the attached plastic backing, so you simply install them in 12×12 sections, and only have to worry about spacing and aligning each section. In many cases you don’t even have to trim them, as you can simply remove one row from a sheet, two rows, etc., to fit the space you have to fill in.
Pricing tile for backsplashes is kind of scary, as the 12×12 sheets I used here con the end sections and corner wall cost $10-$11 per sq. ft., so at first glance it seems prohibitively expensive. And it’s not dirt cheap, but you’re usually not talking about that much square footage when you get down to it, and kitchens are typically where you want to spend money on a rehab, so you get a lot of bang for your buck. You can also often use less expensive tile for certain areas, with some planning. In this one I used much cheaper 6×6 slate tiles for the back wall of the backsplash, and only used the more expensive smaller slate tile mosiac sheets (1×1 and 1/2×1/2) for the end sections.
As far as regrets, not a huge fan of the vinyl flooring I used. It looks decent enough but it’s way too fragile for my liking. The furnace installers were careful and put down protective material on the floor but the vinyl was still dented and dinged from where they set the new furnace on the floor, in the process of bringing it in. I also cheaped out on the new light fixture I put in, going with a lower-end halogen light. It doesn’t look terrible and it’s low-profile (the ceiling is fairly short as is so I didn’t want to use anything that protruded down too far), but it’s kind of cheap looking. I’d originally planned to put in some recessed lights and I bailed out at the last minute, as I’m still not really comfortable working with electrical stuff and the halogen light was simple and easy and I could be done with it in 15 minutes. The real regret there, though, is that I had the entire ceiling exposed to replace the tiles, so there really was no reason not to go ahead and installed recessed lighting as I’d planned, as it would have looked much nicer, provided more light, and wouldn’t have cost all that much extra.
Total renovation costs for kitchen:
Flooring: (will be included in total flooring costs listed later)
Tile backsplash (includes tile, mortar, grout, etc.): $250
New sink and faucet: $210
New ceiling (ceiling tiles and caulk): $250
Paint: $40
New light fixture: $20
Miscellaneous (wallplates and switchplates, screws, drip bowls, etc.): $30
Total cost: $800
Comments
1 Comment so far
The tile looks good. You’re wife was right about taking it down the wall. Nice job. The only issue is the flooring. Again, that’s the exact type we have in the house we recently purchased and I hate it! But several of my friends think it’s fine, even saying they wouldn’t change it, so it just depends on the buyer. It’s probably fine for the price range you’re listed in. Looks like the house will show really well. GL!